Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum

This is my first time at the Weisman museum! I would say that this museum has unique features on the outside and it is plain and small when you walk around inside. I like the views I saw from looking out the window and on the balcony. It was an enjoyable view.

I really like Abdi Roble’s photographs. His black and white pictures really draws your attention to the events that are happening and facial expressions that he was able to capture.

By reading the didactics, it shows Abdi Roble's outlook in Somali life from Kenya, Africa to the United States. I learned that even though Somalis have westernized a little in the United States, they still have their Somali values, norms, and traditions. Abdi's photos gives us viewers an idea and to see what the living conditions were like in Kenya, Africa for Somali men, women, and children in the home and in school. Then he shows photos from all over the United States of Somalis of how much their society has grown over the years. The photos show that more Somali’s are having decent jobs because of education such as the professor at University of Minnesota, a dentist, and a pharmacy drug store owner.

The first photo I chose was the photo of a Somali style wedding. It had about five women in their traditional dresses. It looked like there were a grandmother, a mother, and daughters/ sisters. They were holding hands together in a circle and two girls had their eyes closed. It looked like it could be a prayer or a blessing. It gives me an idea of how Somali style weddings are like.

The second photo I chose was the photo of a group of boys that are sitting down under a tree with their teacher. They are reading off of large tree barks that have words written on it. Abdi Roble noted that, “school supplies are a luxury.” It shows me how much we have in America and how less people still have in other parts of the world.

I can relate to his photographs because I am from a culture that shares similar goals, norms, and values. And because of war, my parents could not live in their country and had come to the United States to have better opportunities. To me, Abdi Roble’s photographs show how much a Somali society have grown in a few years.

I think that Robert Rauschenberg’s exhibit was impressive. He had old newspaper clippings that he had and he wanted to do something with them and decided to turn them into his kind of art.
Most of Robert Rauschenberg didactics was not informative like Abdi Roble’s didactics. But I read from one of Robert Rauschenberg didactics that he is trying to show government corruption, drugs, race relations, terrorism, astronomical events, concerns, and crises. I see he has a collection of newspapers and pictures of events that took place around the 1970’s. Truthfully, I could relate to his art because it had many different events and pictures that was mixed together. The artist didn’t have informative didactics that explains or really supports what he was trying to portray but the art explains it just by looking at it.

I liked one collection that the Weisman museum had. The painting was “Untitled” by the artist Douglas Argue. The oil on canvas painting that had the illusion of the viewer looking through the door and could step into where hundreds of chickens are caged. I was amazed at how many chickens he had to paint into that huge painting.